JESUS CALLS THE DISCIPLES DAY 4 ELEMENTARY BIBLE LESSON

Transcription

1 DAY 4 ELEMENTARY BIBLE LESSON LESSON TITLE: Jesus Calls the Disciples LESSON OVERVIEW: To teach children about when Jesus called the first disciples and ask them to come and follow Him so that they can fishers of men. BIBLE STORY: Jesus Calls the Disciples (Luke 5:1 11) MEMORY VERSE: And He said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19 TEACHING OBJECTIVE: To teach children how they can follow Jesus and share their faith and His love with others wherever they go. SUPPLIES NEEDED FOR THE LESSON Part 1: The Gathering: Gospel wristbands for all kids Part 2: Bible Lesson Leader: male biblical costume and fishing net Part 3: Memory Verse Activity: plastic solo cups, sharpie marker Part 4: Game Leader: Sound system or cd player Part 5: Small Group Time: A copy of small group questions for each small group of 7 10 kids

2 PART 1: THE GATHERING (35 minutes) Welcome and Prayer (5 minutes) Worship (15 minutes) led by a revivekids representative Introduction to Lesson: Follow the Leader (10 minutes) SUPPLIES: No supplies needed for the introduction to the lesson. PREPARE: Be ready to lead kids in a game of follow the leader. Instruct the kids to watch you and do exactly what you do (you will want to do this standing in one place especially if there is a large amount of children). Remind kids several times that they need to keep their eyes on you, the leader and do exactly what you do. Lead kids in following different motions. Once you have done this for a few minutes, ask the kids, is it easy to follow me as the leader? Kids will most likely answer, yes. Now, instruct the kids to cover their eyes and follow you. Obviously, this won t work very well. Ask the kids why was it difficult to follow the leader when your eyes are covered? Communicate to the kids that it is easier to follow someone when we are keeping our eyes on them. In our lesson today, Jesus had followers called disciples. They chose to follow Jesus and do what Jesus did. Listen carefully today in our Bible lesson time as you learn how you can become an active follower of Christ and live our life so that others may come to know Him. We are here tonight at revivekids to help you come to know Jesus and to teach you how you can share Jesus with others. If you don t have a gospel wristband, raise your hand and we will make sure that you have one. Pass out Bibles as well and walk through each color and scripture giving opportunity for kids to come to trust Jesus. Yellow is Sin, remember that sin is anything that we say, think or do that breaks God s heart. Black is Death, what we deserve for our sin is death (to be forever separated from God). Red is Love, God showed you and I His love by sending Jesus to pay the price for our sin and death. Blue is Faith, when we believe and trust in something or someone we can t see. Green is Life, we have life forever with God when we believe and trust in Jesus. Let s pray and ask God to help us understand and learn from all that we do tonight. 2

3 PART 2: BIBLE LESSON (25 minutes) BIBLE LESSON TEXT: Luke 5:1 11 SUPPLIES: Male Biblical Costume, fishing net PREPARE: Study the lesson from Luke 5:1 11 and prepare to tell the story dressed in biblical costume as if you are Simon. Please avoid reading the story from this curriculum and have your Bible open to Luke 5. INTRODUCTION TO LESSON: (you may substitute a your own personal story) How many of you have ever been fishing? Did you like it? When did you like it most? (usually when you were catching something, right?) I can remember as a child growing up we would go to the lake and go fishing almost every weekend. There were days that my dad would come in off the lake and have a lot of fish and then there were days that there might only be a few. Even though some days he may not catch very many or any at all, it did not keep him from going fishing. He loved it that much and when he did catch some, we got to enjoy the catch. He didn t give up fishing just because there were times that he didn t catch anything. In our Bible lesson today, we are going to learn about some fishermen during Jesus time who were called to follow Jesus. Teaching Tip: Make sure your Bible is in your hand opened to Luke 5. Don t rush through the script. Speak loudly, take your time and use your own words so that you are able to do it without looking at the curriculum. BIBLE LESSON: It had been a long, long night of fishing and nothing. We did not catch one fish! We are all pretty skilled fishermen too. Just a bad night of fishing (holding head down in discouragement), I guess. As we were cleaning and fixing the nets (move the net around), Jesus walked up and wanted to put the boat out from the shore a bit. Many people had been following Him because He was performing miracles and teaching the word of God. So many people wanted to hear what He had to say, it was like they hung on every word that He said. They followed him in large crowds! He got in the boat and so I put it out from the shore a little as He asked. After Jesus finished speaking to the crowd, he told me to put the boat out to deeper water and let down the nets for a catch. I told Him that we had been fishing all night and not caught anything but there was something that made me do what He said and so I put the boat out into deeper water (point out into deeper water). We let down the nets and I could not believe my eyes when we lifted it out of the water. In fact, it was so full of fish that the nets began to break. I had to call my friends in the other boat to come help (motion for someone to come). There were so many fish that both boats began to sink (look very surprised)! All I could do was to fall to my knees (fall to knees) in amazement. Jesus was the most powerful person I have ever met. He truly was Lord of everything!! I told him I am a sinful man (hold head down in shame and humility), I was not worthy to even be in His presence. My friends and I could not believe what we just witnessed!! Jesus told us, don t be afraid, now you will be fishers of men. I am not sure I fully understood what 3

4 He meant but if Jesus was going to lead me, I wanted to follow. He showed us that He could be trusted. We immediately got up (rise from your knees) left everything, even all those fish, to follow Him. There was something about Jesus that makes people want to follow Him. He saw me just as I was, sin and all, and still chose me to follow Him. I know you may be thinking how could you, at your age, follow Jesus. Well, you can, Jesus told His disciples once to let the children come to Him. You too, can ask Jesus to forgive your sin and make Him Lord of your life. Your leaders can answer any questions that you might have about what it really means to follow Jesus. Let s pray and thank God for all that He has done and will do for those who choose to follow Him. Dear God, thank you for being a powerful God! Thank you that you love us so much that you send Jesus here to the earth so that He could pay the price for our sin so that we might know you. Lord, help us to follow Jesus with everything that we are. Amen. You can continue the lesson in costume or have another leader step in and further discuss the Bible lesson. Boys and girls, we at revivekids want you to really understand what it means to follow Jesus. The disciples left what they use to be doing to follow Jesus. When we choose to follow Jesus, we are to leave doing things our way and begin to do things God s way. If you and I are going to do what God asked us to do, we must read the Bible and do what it says. We have learned that our sin separates us from God but you can trust Jesus to pay the price for your sin and death and place your faith (your belief) in Him so that you may know and live with God forever. If you have more questions about what that means, please feel free to talk with me or one of the other leaders. Continue to discuss the Bible lesson until it is time for kids to rotate to next activity. 4

5 PART 3: MEMORY VERSE ACTIVITY/GAME (25 minutes) Tower Stack And He said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19 SUPPLIES: plastic solo cups, sharpie marker, optional: fishing pole PREPARATION: print one word of the verse on each cup READ THE VERSE: Read the verse aloud several times and/or ask several children to read it out loud. EXPLAIN THE VERSE: What does it mean to follow someone? Yes, it means to do what they do. Jesus was telling his disciples or followers to follow His example and they would catch more followers for Him. To fish for men simply means that we cast out the truth of God s love for them and give them an opportunity to become a follower of Jesus. (optional to use fishing pole to show casting ) LEARN THE VERSE: Bible Verse Review Game Tower Stack This is a very simple and inexpensive bible verse review game. It works for children 1st 4th grade. In our 2nd grade class of 50 kids we divided them into 8 groups of about 5 each. You ll want to keep the groups to no more than 7 8 kids per group to allow all the kids to participate. You ll need cups, about 8 10 cups per group. We used sturdy Target Solo cups that we reuse. Print 2 3 words from the verse on each label. Affix labels to cups. (note every other label should be upside down so they look correct when stacking. Have the kids stack the cups to put the verse in order. Note: By printing labels the words are not only neater/easier to read and convenient to do with a large group, but it also makes it easier to reuse the cups. Just carefully peel off the label or put a new label on top of the old label. ( EXTRA ACTIVITY: For this game you only need a boom box (sound system) and a fun, upbeat song. It's kind of like Musical Chairs, only more fun. It works best with an even # of people. Have any "extra" be a judge, who stands on a chair for a better view. Students pair up with one standing in a circle and the other standing next to their partner outside of the circle. When the music starts, have the inner circle walk clockwise and the outer circle walk counter clockwise. When the music stops the leader yells out two body parts (e.g. "Foot to ear!" "Nose to the inside of the elbow!" "Top of the head to the back of the knee!"). Partners scramble to get to each other and put those designated body parts together. Once they do, have them all say the verse together. 5

6 PART 4: GAMES (25 minutes) SUPPLIES: No supplies needed. PREPARATION: None. INSTRUCTION for BLOB TAG: Outdoor or Indoor. Tell the kids that our goal as followers of Jesus is to make more followers of Jesus. As we play this game, your goal is tag everyone to become a part of it. This game is a normal game of tag with an added twist. When "it" tags someone, the person becomes part of "it." Then the two of them must run hand in hand and catch their next victim who will join them. Last one caught by the "Blob" is the winner! EXTRA ACTIVITY: What s That On Your 4 Head? This game makes a great audience game for those times when you need to keep your crowd together. It will work for any size crowd; just know that the larger the crowd, the longer the game. Have an adult volunteer come up front to be the "caller". Ask all the students in the room to stand up. Tell them to pick a number between 1 and 5 and then put that number of fingers up to their forehead and hold it there. Count 1 2 3, hold. (Students should now have their number set on their forehead.) The "caller" (who is facing the opposite direction and can't see the crowd) calls out a number between 1 and 5. Anyone holding up the number that was called out must sit down. At this point, students are allowed to pick another number (or keep the same one) and the game continues. If a student s number is called out, they are out of the game. Continue until there are only 2 students left. They can have the same number, and risk BOTH being eliminated, or choose separate numbers and try to win it all. 6

7 PART 5: SMALL GROUP TIME (list 8 10 questions that will cover the story, the wristband and application questions) 1. Do you remember how long the disciples had been fishing? (all night) Had they caught any fish? (no) 2. What did Jesus instruct Simon Peter to do? (put the nets out in the deeper water) 3. After Simon did that, did he catch fish? (yes, so much that the nets began to break) 4. What did Simon do when he realized who Jesus was? (he fell to his knees) 5. Jesus told them to follow Him and He would make them fishers of what? (men) 6. What do you think it really means to follow Jesus? (to trust Him and to do what He says in the Bible) 7. What are some ways that you and I and can show that we follow Jesus? (answers will vary; be kind to others, pray, read the Bible, go to church, tell other people about Jesus, etc.) 8. How can we pray for you to be a better follower of Jesus? 9. Is there someone you know that doesn t know Jesus that we can pray for? Spend time allowing the kids to pray for one another to know and follow Jesus. 7